thestar.com “observed” us…

It was great to see a small but highlighted “observation” by thestar.com this morning in the Life section. You can read the mention below.

“Toronto faves and our very own wiki

Apr 30, 2007 04:30 AM

Joyous self-absorption. A dead giveaway that a city has come of age.

Two baby websites show Toronto is ready to spend time poring over its own stuff rather than nymag and Parisist postings.

One-week-old tomorrow, ourfaves.com lets Torontophiles list, rate and cross-index their favourite people, places and things in the city. (Full disclosure: the startup was incubated in Torstar Digital). If the new online community thinks someone has the best urban wisdom, the community can make that person a star

BlogTO spilled the news about Torontopedia, the city’s own wiki, just a few days ago, giving everyone a place to add to and edit things about the city. And within minutes there was carping about its usefulness.

How Torontonian.

http://www.thestar.com/article/208631

OurFaves is featured in the Kelsey Blog

I had the pleasure of going for lunch last week with Sonia Carreno, blogger for the Kelsey Group and a freelance consultant in the local search space. We had a wonderful conversation about where the space is going and how OurFaves fits into the local search landscape. As a result of our conversation, Sonia wrote a great post about OurFaves today on the Kelsey blog entitled “Toronto Hits the Local Search – Social Network Scene”. Sonia was one of our closed beta members.

OurFaves is hiring! We are looking for a superstar developer to join our team!

For those who don’t know – OurFaves is a revolutionary new platform that allows people to share and discover the best of the city (starting with Toronto) according to their friends and the people whose opinions matter to them. OurFaves is a start-up venture that is funded by Torstar Digital and imason. As we move into open public beta, we require a

Superstar Web Developer

The ideal candidate:
• Strong ASP.NET (preferably 2.0) skills and is very familiar with Web 2.0 technologies
• Works well in a fast paced, iterative team environment
• Passionate about Web 2.0, has an entrepreneurial spirit and thrives on being the leading edge
• A problem solver and solution-oriented person
• Views ambiguity and involvement as an opportunity

Role and Responsibilities:
Reporting to the GM of OurFaves and working closely with another senior .NET developer and interface designer/developer, you would be a core member of the small start-up team and be an active participant in developing the application.

You would be responsible for:
• Building dynamic tools and features using Javascript, XML, XSLT, xPATH, .NET and SQL Server/Stored Procedure technologies
• Creating web applications using .NET and C# that interact with third-party applications via APIs
• Maintaining and modifying a SQL Server 2005 database

Desired Experience and Knowledge:
• 3 years experience in web application development and design for web sites (portfolio of web projects is recommended)
• Working knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies and applications (AJAX, RSS, third-party APIs)
• In-depth knowledge of object-oriented and service-oriented architecture principles in n-tier architectures
• Expert knowledge of C#, DOM, Javascript, SQL Server/Stored Procedures (or equivalent database technologies)
• Working knowledge of XML, HTML, CSS, DHTML, server side scripting languages (e.g. ASP, PHP – ASP.NET 2.0 preferred), and a familiarity with Visual Studio

Education:
• Degree in computer science or equivalent (preferable)
• Microsoft certification would be an asset

Some more details:
• Start-up environment – young, smart, passionate, talented, fun team!
• Leading Web 2.0 business – revolutionizing local search landscape with our platform.
• Great growth opportunities as we plan to expand throughout North America.

Contact:
If you are interested in this position, please e-mail your resume to Sharon Mulholland, sharon@ourfaves.com.

Our logo evolution….

Please let me introduce the new OurFaves logo!

….And we are live with a blog!

Well I am thrilled to be posting the first blog post for OurFaves. Blogging this post signals that we are on our way to being live with OurFaves.

Well to get here has been an unbelievable journey and the great part is that this is only the beginning. We hope that through this blog, you will get to be a part of the adventure by hearing how, what and why we are doing things the way we do. We will also keep you up to date on all the fun we like to have faving the city and celebrating with our fave community at our fave places.